Contents

History

Once covering an area of 5 km2
(1.93 sq mi) of one of the last remnants of Tropical dry
evergreen forest of the Coromandel Coast, Guindy Park was
originally a game
reserve. It was established as a Reserve Forest in
1910 then owned by a British citizen named Gilbert Rodericks. Chital (Spotted Deer) were
introduced into the park probably after 1945. It was transferred to
the Tamil Nadu Forest Department in 1958. It was walled off from
the adjacent Raj Bhavan and Indian Institute of
Technology Madras Campus in the late 1980's.[2]

Habitats

The Guindy National Park, Raj Bhavan and IIT-Madras habitat
complex has historically enjoyed a certain degree of protection and
has continued to support some of the last remnants of the natural
habitats that typify the natural range of plant and animal biodiversity of
north-eastern Tamil Nadu.[3][4] The
presence of the park and the surrounding green areas resulted in
the byname, "the green lungs of Chennai", for the
Adyar-Guindy area.

The park has a dry evergreen scrub
and thorn forest, grasslands and
water-bodies with over 350 species of plants including shrubs,
climbers, herbs and grasses and over 24 varieties of trees,
including the Sugar-apple, Atlantia monophylla, Wood-apple, and Neem. This flora provides an ideal habitat
for over 150 species of birds. About one-sixth of the park has been
left as open grassland to preserve that habitat for blackbucks.
Though both the species of blackbuck and spotted deer have their
natural habitat in grassland, the spotted deer prefer bushes and
can adjust in land covered with shrubbery.

Fauna

The endangered blackbuck, considered the flagship species of
the park,[5] has
seen a population decline in recent times. Per the census conducted
on February 29, 2004, the population of Blackbuck was 405 (10
spotted in the IIT campus).[2].
The chital population in the
Park, however, appears to have been steady or even increased since
their introduction into the area many decades ago[6]. Per
the census conducted on February 29, 2004, the population of the
spotted deer was 2,650. Of these, 1,743 were female and 336 were
fawns. The census was taken in the Guindy National Park and the
adjoining areas of the Indian Institute of Technology and the Raj
Bhavan campus using King's Transect method, which would only reveal
the numbers close to the actual figure.

Visitor
information

There is a new interpretation center about the biodiversity of
the park. Entry into this protected reserve is restricted, and
visitors can go into the core area only when escorted by a forest
ranger from the Forests Department. [8] Guindy
Park is contiguous with the Arignar Anna Zoological
Park. It is behind the Gandhi Mandapam, Kamaraj
Memorial and Rajaji Memorial on Sardar Patel road
on the southern part of Chennai. The rear southeast edge of the
park adjoins the campus of Indian
Institute of Technology. Along its fringes are the Cancer
Institute, CLRI campus, the Anna University and the Raj Bhavan.

The nearest railway station is the Kasturibai Nagar
MRTS station which is less than a kilometer away. Guindy station
(Suburban Track) is 1 km away. Chennai Egmore Railway station
is 9 km away. Chennai Central Railway station is 12 km
away. Chennai airport is 8 km away.